1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a communication system performing interprocess communication (IPC), and more particularly relates to a unified interprocess communication (UIPC) method and apparatus, with the method and apparatus being independent of physical communication devices and an operating system.
2. Related Art
Interprocess communication (IPC) has used a variety of methods for interprocess message communication, for example, pipe, semaphore, message queue, or shared memory. These methods were all based on operating systems. Therefore, it was possible to provide diverse interprocess communication (IPC) methods having the basis on the operating systems. In other words, interprocess communication (IPC) methods were dependent on the operating systems, In consequence, every time interprocess communication (IPC) and process are to be implemented, an application software had to be changed according to the operating system used in a communication system. Also, in the case of interprocess communication (IPC) between hardware devices, different physical device drivers were used for different physical devices. Thus, for a process using the device driver, interprocess communication (IPC) function had to be changed in accordance with the kind of device driver in use.
Such interprocess communication (IPC) methods in a communication system were dependent on operating systems and physical devices. As a result, as the operating system and physical devices used in the communication system were changed, overhead costs were incurred repeatedly. This not only deteriorated reusability and portability of the software, but also burdened related industries with time and cost to develop a new communication system.
I have found that it would be desirable to use an improved interprocess communication method and an improved interprocess communication apparatus which can be operated with any physical communication device and with any operating system. The improved method and improved apparatus are advantageous because they do not need to be customized for different operating systems and do not need to be modified for use with different physical communication devices.